La famiglia is key to life at The Italians, a new London wine bar and deli in Marylebone Village from the team behind the namesake venue in Chiswick.
The bijou bar on Devonshire Street is a sophisticated destination, befitting its affluent location, and follows the same ethos as its more casual site in West London, stocking exclusively Italian produce and aiming to build a bond between the producers in Italy and customers in England. The name itself suggests this sense of community, and it’s no coincidence that both outposts are situated in residential areas with a village-like feel.
“We want to create a family. It’s us, the suppliers, the producers, and the customers,” managing director Massimo Lopez tells La Cucina Italiana. The team has spent years forging strong and personal relationships with over 70 small, artisanal producers in Italy. “The question you want to ask yourself is where does [the product] come from, who is making it and how do they do it,” Lopez explains, adding that there’s even a boutique cheesemaker who plays classical music for the goats. Further specialties include mozzarella di Bufala from the Barlotti family in Campania—the same used by renowned chef Massimo Bottura—and salami from Aieta, a town in Calabria, Southern Italy, where Lopez’s grandfather was born.
Buffalo mozzarella
“My mission, in a sense, is for people to appreciate the quality and to know what’s behind what we do,” Lopez adds. Travel is key to achieving this philosophy, and Lopez normally organizes staff trips to Italy to discover the origins, production methods, and characterful stories behind the products in store. Previous trips have included visiting San’Illario, where Prosciutto di Parma is produced, and Modena, the home of balsamic vinegar. A reciprocal invitation is extended to the Italian winemakers, who spend a few days in the shop discussing their wines with customers.
“We want people to have a totally different experience,” Lopez says, one whereby customers are tied to the source of the products they’re enjoying. The interior design helps in this regard, with lampshades fashioned to resemble prosciutto, wooden tabletops crafted from the same Pugliese trees which produce the shop’s olive products, and a bar clad in hand-made Etna lava stones. Approximately 6,000 bottle corks form a striking undulating feature overhead, while black and white footage of Italian cinema is projected onto one of the walls.
While the Marylebone site officially opened last December, it had to wait until mid-May to fulfill its indoor wine bar duties due to lockdown restrictions. Lopez explains that the menu revolves around the motto “less is more,” allowing simple, high-quality ingredients to speak for themselves without accompaniments such as jellies and grapes. There’s no need for a kitchen as dishes are plated up from the goods behind the counter, which are also available for purchase should customers want to spruce up their at-home dining. Diners can enjoy bruschetta, cheese and salami boards, or small plates such as bresaola with rocket, shaved parmesan, and aged balsamic vinegar, and Caprese salad. Meanwhile, freshly baked bread using Italian flour is delivered daily from the Chiswick store in the forms of focaccia, sourdough, and grissini.
The wine list features 200 labels, including a selection of fine wines such as Brunello di Montalcino from Biondi Santi in Tuscany, Valpolicella from Giuseppe Quintarelli in Veneto, and some Champagnes (the sole non-Italian item on the menu). Approximately a dozen wines are offered by the glass, and the list changes fortnightly so customers can experience new grapes. Lopez explains that the bar uses the Coravin system for some of these, a process that involves extracting wine from the bottle using a needle, in turn protecting the wine from oxidation.
While there are currently no confirmed future projects, new sites seem to be on Lopez’s mind. He’s quick to emphasize, however, that these won’t be carbon copies, with each outpost instead drawing inspiration from the local area. In the meantime, it’s early days for the Marylebone venue, but the appetite for the bar is certainly palpable, with local wine lovers reserving tables on a weekly basis—a sign that its “famiglia” ethos is already ringing true.